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Colette Koo, Owner of Drop and managing director of FINDS

One of my earliest memories was being left accidentally outside church at Sunday school by my parents in England. I suppose I knew then I could make friends easily as I found myself talking to a nun and a priest.

My family left England to come to Hong Kong when I was eight. Mum and Dad were Chinese and had met in London.

I don't remember much about that time in Hong Kong before moving back to England at 15 but I do recall at Maryknoll having to kneel down  to have our skirts measured. It was the 1960s and of course we wanted to have them as short as possible but the nuns were having none of it.

I was a daydreamer at school. I enjoyed real life but I also loved to read, particularly as I was fascinated by other people's lives. I'd hate it when I'd come to the end of the book.

I'd even read while I watched the television. I think I must've read all the Enid Blyton books ever published.

The first records I ever bought were Rock Around the Clock  and a song by The Carpenters. I'm a very visual person so I remember the covers of them clearly.

We had good and bad teachers like anywhere. I disliked history because all the teacher did was make you read from the text book. She'd also say that beauty was 'a curse'. The chemistry teacher was great because she made it interesting while the Chinese teacher was sweet, even though I was terrible at it.

I was 15 when I was sent to boarding school at Badminton in Britain. I wanted to go because I thought it'd be like one of the Blyton stories, and in many ways it was. On one occasion, someone dared me to go outside at night and I ended up being locked out in my nightgown though I was eventually let back in.

I was told I was one of the worst-behaved Chinese girls the school had ever had as all the others conformed.

I'd steal out and go to fashion shows, arranging my blankets to look as if I was curled up under them. I enjoyed having that freedom.

I think I was average academically but now I realise was quite bright though I would settle then for being adequate.

When I'd arrived in England, I was streets ahead in maths and other subjects, though my English lagged.

I'm sure I could've learned maybe a little more but it was a period that allowed me to develop other interests.

When it came to A-levels I did history, art, maths and physics.

I was good at science but also liked literary art, drawing and poetry because I liked being in my own world. With hindsight although I liked the experiments in physics, the numbers part left me cold.

I applied to Cambridge University to do architecture but took a year off to attend a foundation course at what was then the Chelsea School of Art in London.

I never did go to Cambridge and instead went on to the London College of Printing to do graphic design.

I really enjoyed it and by this time was a punk hanging out with the Kings Road crowd and meeting interesting people such as Boy George.

I ended up focusing on  photography but also had this hankering to write and even followed around a journalist.

But I came to realise I couldn't knock on people's doors if someone in their family had died.

I also wanted to be an actress but the Chinese side of me thought I couldn't do it and that you shouldn't make a spectacle of yourself.

In those days no one told you that you could be anything, such as a beekeeper.

I also think it's a lot easier when you're naturally good at things. If you're good at lots then it's harder to make a choice.

I started up a graphic design company then went on to work in costume design in films such as The Last Emperor and Empire of the Sun.

At  30 I went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts to do acting.

I do think everyone should have a go at acting because it's about letting yourself go. There's a lack of verbal and physical communication in this world and acting allows you to express yourself.

Now I have a club called Drop in Central and the bar and restaurant FINDS which have brought new challenges such as being detail focused.

I love being in my 40s and love the idea of learning something new every year.

When I'm 50, I want to throw a party to say I'm 60 so I can show how young I look. That's also when I hope to take six months off and learn to snowboard properly.



'I was one of the worst-behaved Chinese girls'